A  CONCISE  STORY 

88  OF  HER  LIFE  88 

AND  \VORKBV 

MYRA  B  LORD 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF 
CALIFORNIA 

SAN  DIEGO 


To  the  memory  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
beloved  and  trusted  counselor, 
and  editor-in-chief  of  the  publi- 
cations which  she  founded,  the 
late  Archibald  McLellan,  C.S.B., 
at  whose  request  the  original 
manuscript  was  written  and  in 
the  mission  of  which  he  was 
deeply  interested,  this  little  book 
is  gratefully  dedicated. 


^^ 

I 


Mary  Baker  Eddy 

A   Concise   Story   of 
Her  Life  and  Work 

By    MYRA    B.    LORD 


DAVIS    &   BOND 

PUBLISHERS    OF    GOOD    BOOKS 

530  ATLANTIC   AVENUE 
BOSTON,  MASSACHUSETTS 

I  1 

Y/////////////////////S////////////^^^^ 


COPYRIGHT,  1918 

BY  DAVIS  &  BOND 

ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


PREFACE 

IN  the  late  winter  of  1914  Mr.  Archibald 
McLellan,  editor-in-chief  of  the  Christian  Sci- 
ence publications,  asked  the  writer  to  pre- 
pare a  brief  sketch  of  the  life  and  work  of 
Mrs.  Eddy  for  the  Women's  Edition  of  the 
"  Manchester  (N.  H.)  Union,  "  under  the 
auspices  of  the  New  Hampshire  Federation 
of  Women's  Clubs.  Presumably  this  was 
for  three  reasons:  first  because  the  writer 
was  a  clubwoman  and  president  of  the  New 
England  Woman's  Press  Association  of  which 
Mrs.  Eddy  was  an  honorary  member;  also 
because  she  had  been  a  resident  of  New 
Hampshire  for  many  years,  but  chiefly  be- 
cause as  Mr.  McLellan's  secretary  and  assist- 
ant she  was  .  thoroughly  familiar  with  the 
subject  and  in  a  position  to  take  up  the  work 
from  a  scientific  standpoint. 

The  first  request  from  the  Federation  had 
been  for  twenty-five  hundred  words,  but  be- 
fore the  work  was  begun  a  second  one  — 
"  Make  it  five  thousand,"  and  close  upon  this 
a  third  message  -  '  Take  all  the  space  you 
want,"  gave  a  more  serious  aspect  to  the  un- 
dertaking than  had  been  anticipated  in  the 
beginning.  The  result  was  that  with  the 


PREFACE 

cooperation  of  the  Christian  Science  Pub- 
lication Committees  both  in  this  country  and 
abroad  seventy-five  thousand  copies  of  the 
paper  were  sold  and  the  New  Hampshire 
Federation  netted  a  large  sum  for  its  contri- 
bution to  the  endowment  fund  of  the  General 
Federation. 

Thus  it  came  about  that  the  article  written 
primarily  for  the  clubwomen  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
native  State  found  a  world-wide  circulation, 
and  soon  letters  began  to  come  in  asking  for 
its  publication  in  a  more  permanent  form. 
One  practitioner  styled  it  "a  handbook  of 
Christian  Science,  because  you  can  hand  it 
to  ^people  who  ask  you  questions  about  Mrs. 
Eddy  and  her  discovery,  knowing  it  will 
answer  them  far  better  than  you  could  do 
it  yourself."  Another  said:  "If  it  could  be 
issued  in  book  form  and  placed  in  the  hands 
of  every  professional  man  and  woman,  it 
would  do  more  to  disarm  the  unfounded  prej- 
udice against  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her  work  than 
anything,  aside  from  her  own  writings,  that 
has  ever  been  put  out  in  the  way  of  propa- 
ganda." 

To  some  these  claims  may  seem  extrav- 
agant. Nevertheless  this  brief  outline  of 
the  salient  features  in  a  career  which,  to  say 

8 


PREFACE 

the  least,  borders  on  the  marvelous,  has  a  mis- 
sion all  its  own.  While  it  in  no  way  en- 
croaches on  the  field  already  so  admirably 
occupied  by  the  comprehensive  "Life  of  Mary 
Baker  Eddy  "  by  Sybil  Wilbur,  to  the  busy 
people  who  like  their  data  concretely  and 
concisely  presented  it  affords  an  opportunity 
to  become  acquainted  at  one  sitting  with  the 
important  facts  in  a  life  the  influence  of  which 
has  been  so  extraordinary  that  the  distinction 
of  being  "the  world's  greatest  woman,"  once 
accorded  to  the  Discoverer  and  Founder  of 
Christian  Science  only  by  her  followers,  is 
now  accorded  to  her  by  thousands  of  others. 
Accordingly  this  carefully  revised  edition 
of  the  original  manuscript,  enriched  with 
numerous  illustrations,  some  of  which  have 
never  before  been  published,  has  been  pre- 
pared. It  is  offered  not  only  to  Christian 
Scientists  but  to  all  other  earnest  seekers 
after  the  light,  in  the  hope  that  it  may  con- 
tinue to  spread  "to  earth's  remotest  bound  " 
the  truth  which  shall  carry  conviction  to  the 
open-minded. 

MYRA  B.  LORD 

BOSTON,  MASS., 
January  i,  1918 


Acknowledgment  is  gratefully  made  to  the  New 
Hampshire  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs  and  to  the 
"  Manchester  Union  "  for  their  courteous  concession  of 
copyrights;  to  Mr.  W.  Clark  Noble  for  permission  to 
use  his  exquisite  cameo  relief  of  Mrs.  Eddy  for  the  re- 
production which  appears  on  the  cover;  and  to  Mr. 
Rufus  Baker  for  the  sketch  of  the  Baker  homestead, 
also  to  other  friends  for  the  loan  of  treasured  photo- 
graphs of  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her  home  in  Concord,  N.  H., 
and  at  Chestnut  Hill,  Mass. 


MARY  BAKER  EDDY 


,RS.  EDDY  herself  laid  no  claim 
to  world-wide  greatness,  but  that 
which  she  accomplished  for  hu- 
manity is  and  will  continue  to  be 
throughout  all  time  the  most  eloquent 
testimony  to  her  right  to  be  acclaimed  as 
a  world  benefactor.  Truly  it  may  be  said 
of  her  what  the  wise  man  wrote  of  old:  "A 
woman  that  feareth  the  Lord,  she  shall  be 
praised.  Give  her  of  the  fruit  of  her  hands; 
and  let  her  own  works  praise  her  in  the  gates." 
Speaking  of  the  famous  women  New  Hamp- 
shire is  proud  to  call  her  daughters,  a  former 
Governor  of  the  State,  the  Hon.  Samuel  D. 
Felker,  said  of  the  Discoverer  and  Founder 
of  Christian  Science,  "  She  has  left  the  im- 
press of  her  work  not  only  on  New  England 
but  on  the  entire  world;  and  we  are  proud 
of  her/' 

In  her  discovery  in  1866  of  Christian 
Science,  the  culmination  of  years  of  diligent 
research,  as  she  tells  us  in  her  autobiography, 
"for  the  knowledge  of  God,  as  the  one  great 
and  ever-present  relief  from  human  woe, "  Mrs. 

ii 


MARY        BAKER        EDDY 

Eddy  all  unconsciously  laid  the  founda- 
tion for  her  surpassing  greatness.  Today 
one  cannot  go  among  any  English  speaking 
people,  and  in  many  foreign  lands  as  well, 
without  sooner  or  later  hearing  a  mention  of 
Christian  Science. 

The  surprising  thing  about  the  adherents 
of  this  new-old  religion  is  the  freedom  with 
which  they  speak  of  it.  It  is  so  much  a  part 
of  their  every-day  living,  it  enters  so  inti- 
mately into  all  their  relations  with  their  fel- 
lows; in  short,  its  practical  application  is  so 
general,  that  it  becomes  a  perfectly  natural 
subject  of  conversation. 

When  one  has  been  healed  himself,  or  has 
seen  some  loved  relative  or  friend  restored 
to  health  and  usefulness  through  the  minis- 
trations of  Christian  Science,  his  gratitude 
therefor  is  more  than  likely  to  find  audible 
expression.  He  would  be  less  than  human, 
when  he  comes  across  some  hopeless  sufferer, 
some  one  bowed  beneath  the  weight  of  grief 
and  anxiety,  did  he  not  gently  lead  the 
thought  of  that  one  to  a  realization  of  the 
truth  that  will  make  men  whole. 

12 


MARY        BAKER        EDDY 

Her  Early  Life  and  Education 

What  was  it  that  differentiated  the  career 
of  Mary  Baker  from  that  of  hundreds  of 
her  contemporaries  among  the  New  Hamp- 
shire hills?  Her  early  environment  was  in 
many  respects  the  same  as  that  of  other 
girls  of  her  time,  girls  who  became  good  and 
useful  women,  yet  whose  lives  made  but  a 
passing  ripple  in  the  human  current. 

If  one  is  familiar  with  country  life  and  its 
conditions,  he  can  easily  depict  the  setting 
of  the  scene  that  portrays  the  first  stage  in 
the  wonderful  career  of  Mrs.  Eddy.  Her 
parents,  Mark  and  Abigail  Ambrose  Baker, 
were  of  the  second  generation  of  the  pioneers 
in  that  section  of  New  Hampshire,  and  the 
town  of  Bow  in  which  she  was  born,  July  16, 
1821,  was  and  is  typical  of  the  hundreds  of 
the  smaller  country  towns  of  New  England. 

Life  on  the  farm  in  the  first  quarter  of  the 
nineteenth  century  was  not  far  enough  re- 
moved from  pioneer  days  to  offer  much  out- 
side of  the  daily  routine  of  toil  which  the 
rearing  of  a  large  family  necessitated,  but 
the  best  that  the  town  could  offer  in  the  way 

13 


MARY        BAKER        EDDY 

of  social,  educational,  and  religious  advan- 
tages was,  in  the  opinion  of  Mark  Baker, 
none  too  good  for  his  children.  Mary,  as 
the  youngest  of  six,  and  more  delicate  in 
health  and  sensitive  in  temperament,  was 
"  favored "  perhaps  more  than  the  others, 
and  was  more  susceptible  to  the  strongly  re- 
ligious atmosphere  which  pervaded  her  home. 

In  the  busy  life  of  which  this  tender  little 
flower  had  become  a  part,  she  became  the 
special  charge  of  her  grandmother  Baker, 
a  descendant  of  Scotch  Covenanters  and 
imbued  with  all  the  religious  fervor  which 
such  kinship  implies.  The  stories  this  im- 
pressionable child  heard  at  her  grandmother's 
knee,  the  regular  instruction  received  from 
her  spiritually-minded  mother,  the  discus- 
sions to  which  she  eagerly  listened  when  the 
men  of  affairs  came  to  talk  over  with  her 
stern  Calvinistic  father  the  topics  of  the  day, 
—  all  these  were  molding  influences  that 
helped  to  prepare  her  for  the  great  work 
to  which  in  later  years  she  was  to  be  called. 

Mary  was  early  marked  as  a  precocious 
child,  and  many  anecdotes  have  been  pre- 
14 


MARY        BAKER        EDDY 

served  which  go  far  to  show  that  the  influence 
of  her  destiny,  though  as  yet  unknown,  hov- 
ered over  her  childhood.  Often  she  amazed 
her  family  and  the  many  visitors  at  the 
homestead  with  sage  remarks  far  beyond  her 
years;  presumably  an  over-development  of 
her  brain  which  caused  the  customary  pre- 
diction that  she  would  "never  live  to  grow  up." 

From  her  earliest  years  Mary  had  been  the 
special  favorite  of  her  brother  Albert,  who 
at  this  period  was  preparing  to  enter  Dart- 
mouth college.  The  smaller  children,  how- 
ever, had  a  hard  time  in  the  ungraded  schools 
of  those  days,  where  the  boisterous  spirits 
of  the  older  boys  and  girls  required  a  strong 
hand  to  keep  them  in  check.  It  had  soon 
become  evident  that  the  noisy  schoolroom 
was  no  place  for  one  of  Mary's  sensitive  tem- 
perament, and  she  was  allowed  to  continue 
her  studies  at  home. 

Mark  Baker's  home  was  amply  supplied 
with  the  literature  of  that  day.  It  was  a 
home,  too,  where  questions  of  public  interest 
were  freely  discussed,  and  near  enough  to  the 
capital  of  the  state  so  that  a  man  of  his  prom- 

15 


MARY        BAKER         EDDY 

inence  in  local  affairs  was  in  close  touch 
with  the  great  men  of  the  time. 

Browsing  at  will  among  books  far  beyond 
her  years,  with  an  imagination  early  fired 
by  the  tales  of  heroism  heard  again  and  again 
at  the  knee  of  her  Covenanting  grandmother, 
together  with  a  store  of  spiritual  wisdom  and 
sundry  verses  said  to  have  been  written  by 
Mary's  great-grandmother,  it  is  not  surpris- 
ing that  the  child  early  conceived  a  reverence 
for  learning,  and  adored  the  kindly  big 
brother  who  had  helped  her  with  her  lessons 
and  in  whose  plans  for  a  higher  education  she 
had  been  deeply  interested. 

Naturally,  then,  deprived  both  of  her 
school  and  the  companionship  of  this  much 
loved  brother  who  had  gone  to  college,  the 
little  nine-year-old  girl  was  lonely.  Her  in- 
herent love  of  nature  and  all  that  pertains 
to  an  outdoor  life,  her  intense  interest  in  birds 
and  flowers  and  bees  and  all  the  farmyard 
pets,  crops  out  every  now  and  then  in  the 
writings  through  which  from  early  girlhood 
she  sought  to  express  her  inmost  thoughts 
and  feelings;  yet  even  these  joys  could  not 

16 


MARY         BAKER         EDDY 

compensate  her  for  the  loss  of  her  brother's 
companionship. 

Alone,  as  she  must  largely  have  been  in  her 
outdoor  wanderings,  she  had  brooded  over 
the  book  learning  which  was  to  open  up  such 
wonderful  possibilities  in  her  brother's  career, 
and  deep  in  that  childish  soul  was  born  the 
resolve  that  she  too  would  be  a  scholar,  and 
when  she  grew  up  would  write  poetry,  even 
as  had  the  pious  Hannah  More,  with  whom 
grandmother  Baker  claimed  kinship. 

When  her  brother  came  home  Mary  lost 
no  time  in  imparting  to  him  her  determination 
to  write  a  book,  and  he,  in  turn,  impressed  by 
her  seriousness  and  her  already  admitted  pre- 
cocity of  thought,  promised  to  aid  her  in  the 
achievement  of  her  ambition.  Knowing  how 
laudably  that  ambition  was  fulfilled,  one  ac- 
cepts without  hesitation  her  statement  to  her 
brother  that  she  had  read  Young's  "Night 
Thoughts  "  and  understood  it. 

Soothing  his  excitable  little  sister  with  his 
caresses,  the  serious  young  college  student 
made  a  secret  pact  with  her.  The  ban  on 
books  had  been  removed,  and  if,  while  he  was 

17 


MARY        BAKER         EDDY 

away  for  the  remaining  semester,  she  would 
study  diligently  her  English  grammar  and  the 
Latin  grammar  he  would  leave  with  her,  he, 
on  his  part,  would  teach  her  to  read  Latin 
when  he  came  home  for  the  summer  vacation. 

She  embraced  him  joyfully  and  flushed 
with  excitement  and  triumph  it  is  no  wonder 
that  she  appeared  to  the  fond  eyes  of  the 
young  man  "as  beautiful  as  an  angel,"  -as 
he  remarked  to  his  mother. 

"She  is  as  gentle  and  sweet  tempered  as 
one,"  was  the  mother's  loving  response.  Who 
can  doubt  the  pride  that  swelled  her  heart  as 
she  watched  these  flowers  of  her  flock,  —  the 
youth  full  of  promise  and  the  child  radiant 
with  happiness! 

How  faithfully  her  part  of  the  obligation 
was  fulfilled  is  evidenced  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  own 
statement  that  at  ten  years  of  age  she  was  as 
familiar  with  Lindley  Murray's  grammar  as 
with  the  Westminster  Catechism  which  she 
had  to  repeat  every  Sunday.  Only  those 
who  know  how  thoroughly  the  children  of 
that  period  were  grounded  in  that  essential 
preliminary  to  a  religious  upbringing,  can  ap- 

18 


MARY        BAKER         EDDY 

preciate  to  the  full  how  much  was  implied  in 
this  statement. 

On  his  part  the  big  brother  was  equally 
faithful  to  the  compact,  and  the  aptness  of 
his  pupil  would  have  satisfied  the  most  ex- 
acting of  teachers.  Every  vacation  he  re- 
viewed with  her  the  studies  she  had  pursued 
during  his  absence,  and  before  his  departure 
outlined  the  work  for  the  succeeding  period. 

Picture  that  child  of  tender  years  wrest- 
ling with  natural  philosophy,  logic  and  moral 
science,  which  she  has  declared  were  her 
"favorite  studies." 

Her  brother  also  gave  her  lessons  in  He- 
brew, Greek  and  Latin.  Was  it  not  a  natural 
sequence,  after  the  family's  removal  to  Tilton 
when  Mary  was  fifteen,  and  she  became  a 
pupil  at  the  private  school  kept  by  Prof. 
Dyer  H.  Sanborn  where  boys  fitted  for  col- 
lege, that  she  should  be  graduated  with  aca- 
demic honors  and  that  her  services  should  be 
sought  later  as  an  assistant  instructor  in  the 
seminary  with  which  her  teacher  had  become 
associated  as  a  professor? 

There  have  been  those  who  scouted  the 
19 


MARY         BAKER         EDDY 

exceptional  advantages  for  intellectual  train- 
ing ascribed  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  who  derided 
her  statement  that  following  close  on  her  dis- 
covery of  Christian  Science,  much  of  the 
knowledge  gleaned  from  books  vanished  like 
a  dream.  The  letter  of  that  knowledge  might 
easily  have  vanished,  but  the  mental  disci- 
pline of  those  years  of  assiduous  application 
was  of  incalculable  value  when  the  events 
which  crowded  so  thick  and  fast  in  the  latter 
half  of  her  earthly  life  made  such  rigorous 
demands  on  her  time. 

Nor  could  the  spirit  of  that  knowledge  be 
wholly  lost.  Once  imbibed,  it  became  a  part 
of  her  mental  equipment,  and  one  has  only 
to  read  the  fruitage  of  her  ripened  wisdom 
to  find  on  its  every  page  diction  which  bears 
the  hall-mark  of  scholarly  attainment. 

"What  is  Religion?" 

Mention  has  been  made  of  the  markedly 
religious  spirit  which  dominated  the  Baker 
home,  and  which  influenced  Mrs.  Eddy  to  a 
marked  degree  from  her  birth.  She  got  her 
first  definition  of  religion  from  her  grand- 

20 


MARY        BAKER         EDDY 

mother.  Recounting  to  the  little  one  the 
story  of  the  Scottish  blade  rusting  in  its  brass 
scabbard  which  for  five  hundred  years  had 
been  a  family  heirloom,  grandmother  Baker 
explained  that  these  far-away  ancestors  had 
written  their  names  on  the  covenant  with 
blood,  which  signified  that  their  religion  was 
more  to  them  than  life  itself. 

Wonderingly  the  child  gazed  at  her  grand- 
mother. "What  is  religion?"  she  asked. 
Everybody  knows  the  proclivity  of  children 
to  ask  questions  that  puzzle  even  if  they  do 
not  entirely  phase  their  elders.  But  grand- 
mother Baker  had  learned  her  lesson  in  that 
dear  school  of  experience,  and  she  was  ready 
with  her  answer: 

"Religion  is  to  know  and  worship  God. " 

Could  anything  be  more  succinct  and  simple 
in  statement!  And  how  closely  it  approxi- 
mated that  wondrous  definition  which  had 
fallen  from  the  lips  of  the  great  Teacher 
eighteen  hundred  years  before: 

"And  this  is  life  eternal,  that  they  might  £nou? 
thee  the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ,  whom  thou 
bast  sent. " 

21 


MARY        BAKER        EDDY 

Her  First  Stand  for  Principle 

Mark  Baker,  relentless  theologian  that  he 
was,  must  have  been  sorely  puzzled  by  these 
childish  experiences.  His  was  the  unbending 
doctrine  of  the  early  Calvinists,  and  he  doubt- 
less was  troubled  as  to  Mary's  election  to  the 
way  of  grace.  The  struggle  between  these 
two  strong  Drills  culminated  in  her  twelfth 
year,  on  her  persistent  refusal  to  accept  the 
prevailing  doctrine  of  predestination  and  end- 
less punishment  for  the  non-elect.  She  loved 
God,  but  if  the  brothers  and  sisters  so  dear  to 
her,  who  were  also  dissenters  from  the  family 
faith,  were  thereby  predestined  for  that  place 
of  eternal  punishment  which  her  father  con- 
tended yawned  for  the  non-believer,  she  would 
take  her  chance  along  with  them. 

It  was  no  light  matter  for  a  child  of  her 
years  to  refuse  to  accept  the  ruling  of  the  head 
of  the  family,  but  she  was  apparently  unmoved 
by  all  the  arguments  brought  to  bear  on  her, 
and  Mark  Baker  unwisely  undertook  to 
break  the  will  so  like  his  own.  He  resisted 
not  the  daughter  he  so  fondly  loved  and 

22 


MARY        BAKER         EDDY 

cherished,  but  the  evil  spirits  which  he  be- 
lieved possessed  her  for  the  time  being. 

It  was  Mary  Baker's  first  stand  for  Prin- 
ciple; but  the  contention  was  too  much  for 
the  sensitive  child,  and  she  drooped  under  it 
like  a  tender  flower  in  an  icy  blast.  When 
she  lay  on  her  little  bed,  stricken  with  fever, 
her  father's  anguish  knew  no  bounds.  He 
thought  her  dying,  and  lashed  his  horse  as 
he  drove  madly  through  the  town  in  search 
of  a  physician. 

Her  First  Personal  Demonstration  of 
Divine  Healing 

In  the  mean  time  Mrs.  Baker  was  applying 
the  gentler  arts  of  love,  and  after  the  physician 
had  come  and  gone,  leaving  instructions  for 
the  care  of  the  child,  she  counseled  Mary  to 
turn  to  God  in  prayer,  as  she  was  wont  to  do. 
In  her  autobiography  Mrs.  Eddy  outlines  the 
results.  She  says:  "I  prayed;  and  a  soft 
glow  of  ineffable  joy  came  over  me.  The 
fever  was  gone,  and  I  rose  and  dressed  myself 
in  a  normal  condition  of  health." 

23 


MARY        BAKER         EDDY 

A  Profession  of  Faith 

None  of  her  brothers  and  sisters  had  as  yet 
made  a  formal  profession  of  religion,  but  for 
some  reason  there  seemed  to  be  a  strong 
desire,  both  on  the  part  of  the  family  and  the 
pastor  of  the  church,  that  this  special  lamb 
of  the  flock  should  be  early  gathered  into  the 
fold.  Perhaps  it  was  the  outgrowth  of  the 
oft-expressed  prediction  that  she  was  "  not  long 
for  this  world."  Her  precocity  of  thought, 
her  familiarity  with  the  Bible,  the  habit  she 
had  formed  of  praying  seven  times  daily,  as 
did  her  favorite  hero  Daniel,  —  all  these  had 
made  her  a  marked  character  in  the  com- 
munity. 

Her  pronounced  views  on  doctrinal  points 
seem  to  have  been  no  bar  to  her  coming  as  a 
candidate  before  the  church  at  this  time,  and 
the  usual  questions  were  put  to  her  and  an- 
swered. When,  however,  the  pastor  pressed 
her  to  explain  how  she  knew  she  had  been  re- 
generated, the  crucial  point  was  reached,  and 
the  members  listened  intently  for  her  answer. 

One  cannot  repress  a  throb  of  pity  for  that 
24 


young  girl  so  fearlessly  confronting  the  grim 
elders  of  the  church,  her  own  father  among 
them,  keeping  her  covenant  and  defending 
her  faith  as  bravely  as  did  ever  the  Scottish 
ancestor  who  had  wielded  the  sword  of  five 
centuries  before.  We  may  be  sure,  never- 
theless, there  was  no  tremor  in  the  soft  voice 
that  responded,  — 

"  I  can  only  say  in  the  words  of  the  psalmist, 

'Search  me,  O  God,  and  know  my  heart;  try 

me,  and  know  my  thoughts;  and  see  if  there  be 

any  wicked  way  in  me,  and  lead  me  in  the  way 

everlasting. ' 

The  child's  steadfastness  to  her  faith  seems 
to  have  made  a  profound  impression  on  the 
assembly.  Some  of  the  elder  members  were 
moved  to  tears,  and  even  the  pastor,  who  had 
felt  it  his  duty  to  catechise  her  rigorously, 
appeared  to  be  satisfied  as  to  her  sincerity. 
The  effect  of  the  ordeal  on  her  was  such,  how- 
ever, that  it  seemed  wise  to  send  her  on  a  visit, 
to  Boston  under  the  care  of  a  brother,  Samuel, 
who  was  then  in  business  there.  It  was  while 
on  this  visit  that  she  wrote  the  poem  "The 
Country-seat,"  the  closing  stanza  of  which 

25 


MARY         BAKER         EDDY 

will    serve   to   show   the   seriousness   of   her 
thought  at  this  time:  — 

Oh,  give  me  the  spot  where  affection  may  dwell 
In  sacred  communion  with  home's  magic  spell! 
Where  flowers  of  feeling  are  fragrant  and  fair, 
And  those  we  love  most  find  a  happiness  rare; 
But  clouds  are  a  presage,  —  they  darken  my  lay; 
This  life  is  a  shadow,  and  hastens  away. 

Later  Intellectual  Training 

With  the  removal  of  the  family  to  Tilton, 
New  Hampshire,  in  1836,  Mary  Baker's  in- 
tellectual training  broadened  and  deepened. 
Not  only  was  she  enrolled  at  Professor  Dyer's 
academy,  but  she  was  a  special  pupil  of  the 
Rev.  Enoch  Corser,  pastor  of  the  Congrega- 
tional church,  who  received  her  into  com- 
munion at  the  age  of  seventeen.  He  it  was 
who  discerned  her  unusual  promise,  and  said 
of  her:  "She  has  some  great  future,  mark 
that.  She  is  an  intellectual  and  spiritual 
genius." 

The  next  few  years  were  passed  peacefully 
and  happily.  The  family  was  prominent  in 
business  and  professional  connections,  and  the 

26 


MARY        BAKER        EDDY 

daughters  of  the  house  were  much  admired 
socially.  In  the  later  portraits  of  Mrs.  Eddy 
it  is  easy  to  trace  the  outlines  of  her  appear- 
ance, as  sketched  by  those  who  remember  her 
at  that  time.  She  is  described  as  of  medium 
height,  slender  and  graceful,  with  an  abund- 
ance of  wavy  chestnut  hair,  rosy  complexion, 
and  large  dark  blue  eyes  that  deepened  in 
color  under  stress  of  emotion. 

"The  Young  Poetess" 

It  was  during  these  happy  girlhood  years 
that  Mary  Baker  began  to  be  recognized  as 
"the  young  poetess."  From  her  early  years 
she  had  indulged  her  passion  for  writing  in 
one  form  or  another,  and  following  the  poem 
already  cited,  several  lyrical  compositions 
from  her  pen  found  their  way  into  the  local 
press. 

When  in  1910  Mrs.  Eddy  decided  to  publish 
a  collection  of  her  poems,  she  included 
among  them  a  few  of  these  earlier  efforts. 
The  "copy  "  for  these  was  newspaper  clippings, 
brown  and  crumbling  with  the  passing  of 
the  years,  but  the  sentiment  they  embodied 

27 


MARY        BAKER         EDDY 

was  as  fresh  and  spontaneous  as  when  the  fair 
girlish  hand  had  penned  the  lines.  One  of 
these  is  so  buoyant  in  tone  that  it  ranks 
among  the  best  of  these  earlier  productions, 
and  its  dawning  spiritual  thought  is  of  interest 
in  comparison  with  Mrs.  Eddy's  later  poetical 
writings. 

UPWARD 

I've  watched  in  the  azure  the  eagle's  proud  wing, 
His  soaring  majestic,  and  feathersome  fling  — 
Careening  in  liberty  higher  and  higher  — 
Like  genius  unfolding  a  quenchless  desire. 


God's  eye  is  upon  him.     He  penciled  his  path 
Whose  omniscient  notice  the  frail  fledgling  hath. 
Though   lightnings  be   lurid    and   earthquakes   may 

shock, 
He  rides  on  the  whirlwind  or  rests  on  the  rock. 

My  course,  like  the  eagle's,  oh,  still  be  it  high, 
Celestial  the  breezes  that  waft  o'er  its  sky! 
God's  eye  is  upon  me  —  I  am  not  alone 
When  onward  and  upward  and  heavenward  borne. 

28 


MARY        BAKER        EDDY 

Early  Married  Life  and  Its  Influences 

Mrs.  Eddy's  history  naturally  divides  itself 
into  three  distinct  periods.  The  first  period, 
up  to  the  time  of  her  marriage  to  Col.  George 
Washington  Glover  in  December,  1843,  has 
been  described  at  length  because  the  influence 
of  those  early  years  was  never  forgotten. 
The  way  was  long  and  devious  by  which  the 
goal  was  attained,  but  that  she  was  set  apart 
for  a  particular  destiny  is  plainly  evident  as 
one  traces  step  by  step  this  formative  period 
of  her  marvelous  career. 

Had  Mary  Baker  been  endowed  with  the 
robust  health  which  her  brothers  and  sisters 
possessed,  her  life  might  have  flowed  in  a  more 
peaceful  current,  but  the  world  would  have 
missed  a  great  benefactor.  The  undefined 
religion  of  the  Covenanters  and  Puritans,  the 
spirit  of  noblesse  oblige  which  descent  from  a 
long  line  of  defenders  of  the  faith  implies,  the 
love  of  the  good  and  beautiful,  the  desire  for 
wisdom  whereby  better  to  serve  God,  —  with 
these,  what  else  but  the 

"  divinity  that  shapes  our  ends," 
29 


MARY        BAKER        EDDY 

could  have  planned  for  the  budding  and 
bursting  forth  of  these  dominant  forces  in  this 
beautiful  and  gentle  girl,  as  fragile  and  sweet 
as  the  wild  roses  she  gathered  as  she  roamed 
at  will  the  fields  and  woods  about  her  child- 
hood home! 

To  all  outward  appearances  Mary  Baker 
left  her  home  in  1843  to  go  with  the  husband  of 
her  choice  under  the  happiest  auspices.  The 
death  of  her  brother  Albert  two  years  before 
had  been  her  first  great  sorrow,  but  with  the 
departure  of  the  fair  young  bride  for  Charles- 
ton, S.  C.,  where  her  husband's  business  was 
located,  she  entered  upon  an  era  in  which  she 
was  to  sound  the  depths  of  woe,  —  to  know 
life's  vicissitudes  and  suffer  as  only  one  of  her 
sensitive  temperament  could.  That  era  was 
nevertheless  to  culminate  in  an  event  which 
in  its  results  would  separate  her  more  widely 
from  family  and  friends  than  the  miles  that 
stretched  their  seemingly  interminable  length 
between  the  old  and  the  new  home. 

Did  the  young  wife  feel  no  prescience  of 
this  as  hand  in  hand  with  her  gallant  husband, 
a  new  light  in  her  deep  blue  eyes,  a  new  happi- 

30 


MARY    BAKER    EDDY 

ness  on  her  bonny  face,  she  took  her  departure? 
Be  that  as  it  may,  the  happiness  was  of  brief 
duration.  Within  six  months  Colonel  Glover 
while  on  a  business  trip  was  stricken  with  yel- 
low fever  and  passed  away  after  a  brief  illness. 

A  month  later  the  grief-stricken  widow 
returned  to  the  home  she  had  left  with  such 
glowing  hopes,  there  to  mourn  her  loss  until, 
with  the  birth  of  her  son  in  September,  1844, 
a  new  channel  for  her  affections  was  opened. 
But  this  happiness  too  was  of  brief  duration, 
for  her  family  thought  her  too  delicate  to  care 
for  the  child,  and  she  saw  but  little  of  him  in 
the  next  five  years.  With  the  death  of  her 
mother  in  1849,  and  the  second  marriage  of 
her  father  a  year  later,  came  the  crushing 
blow  of  a  separation  from  her  child,  unwel- 
come either  in  her  father's  house  or  her  sister 
Abigail's,  where  much  of  her  time  during  the 
next  three  years  was  spent. 

It  was  the  decade  preceding  the  outbreak 
of  the  Civil  War.  From  the  time  of  her 
return  Mrs.  Glover  had  written  whenever  her 
health  permitted,  and  Mark  Baker  must  have 
felt  a  thrill  of  pride  when  he  read  his  daughter's 

31 


MARY        BAKER         EDDY 

political  writings  in  the  "New  Hampshire 
Patriot,"  even  though  her  views  may  not 
always  have  coincided  with  his  own.  Her 
sojourn  in  the  South  had  been  short,  but  what 
she  had  seen  and  heard  on  the  question  of  the 
day  tipped  her  pen  as  with  fire,  and  she  wrote 
with  brilliance  and  virility  on  this  and  various 
other  subjects  for  the  papers  and  magazines 
of  that  period. 

Her  precarious  state  of  health  and  unceas- 
ing desire  to  have  her  child  with  her  were  the 
potent  influences  which  brought  about  her 
second  marriage  in  1853  to  Dr.  Daniel  Patter- 
son, a  relative  of  her  stepmother.  In  speak- 
ing of  this  marriage  as  an  unfortunate  one, 
Mrs.  Eddy  has  said  all  that  needs  to  be 
chronicled,  except  that  she  regained  neither 
her  health  nor  her  son. 

It  may  be  stated  here  that  her  boy,  when 
about  ten  years  old,  removed,  with  the  family 
who  had  charge  of  him,  to  what  was  then  the 
far  West.  This  separation  had  been  planned 
by  relatives  through  a  mistaken  sense  that  his 
boisterous  spirits  were  too  much  for  one  in  his 
mother's  frail  condition  to  cope  with.  Long 

32 


MARY        BAKER        EDDY 

distance  communication  was  slow  and  difficult 
in  those  days,  and  as  time  went  on  mother 
and  child  were  each  given  to  understand  that 
the  other  was  no  longer  living. 

Not  until  he  was  serving  as  a  volunteer  in  the 
Union  Army  during  the  Civil  War  did  George 
W.  Glover  learn  that  his  mother  still  lived. 
He  wrote  to  her,  and  her  joy  at  hearing  from 
her  long  lost  son  was  pathetic.  At  that  trying 
period  of  her  career  she  was  however  in  no  posi- 
tion to  be  of  assistance  to  him.  At  the  close 
of  the  war  he  returned  to  the  West,  and  nothing 
further  was  heard  from  him  for  several  years. 

With  the  freedom  of  later  years,  however, 
came  the  gratification  of  the  mother's  un- 
ceasing desire  to  see  her  son  once  more,  and 
having  succeeded  in  1879  in  locating  him  in 
Minnesota,  she  sent  for  him  to  visit  her  in 
Boston.  Again  in  1887  he  came  East,  this 
time  bringing  his  wife  and  children,  and  re- 
mained for  several  months.  Had  the  in- 
fluences of  those  years  of  separation  been 
different,  this  would  have  been  the  time  when 
he  could  have  been  of  inestimable  assistance  to 
Mrs.  Eddy,  but  she  herself  soon  saw  that  their 

33 


MARY    BAKER    EDDY 

paths  had  been  too  long  diverse  to  merge 
again,  so  he  and  his  family  went  back  to  their 
home  in  the  West. 

Mrs.  Eddy  was  nevertheless  most  generous 
in  her  provision  for  the  welfare  of  her  son, 
lavishing  many  gifts  upon  him  and  his  family, 
and  arranging  for  the  education  of  her  three 
grandchildren.  In  1907  she  set  aside  the  sum 
of  $125,000  as  a  trust  fund  for  their  benefit. 
George,  however,  did  not  long  survive  his 
mother.  His  death  occurred  in  1915. 

While  married  to  Dr.  Patterson  Mrs.  Eddy 
was  left  much  alone,  and  her  lifetime  custom 
of  studying  the  Bible  seems  to  have  been  her 
chief  solace.  Several  poems  written  during 
this  period  tell  the  story  of  her  loneliness  and 
sorrow  with  touching  pathos.  It  was  in  the 
year  of  her  great  discovery  that  she  wrote: 

'  I'm  weeping  alone  that  the  vision  is  fled, 
The  leaves  all  faded,  the  fruitage  shed; 

and  the  blinding  tears  of  a  wasted  affection 
clouded  the  dawn  of  a  far  exceeding  glory 
which  even  then  had  tinged  the  horizon  with 
its  roseate  glow. 

34 


MARY        BAKER        EDDY 


Her  First  Definition  of  Divine  Healing 

In  all  this  long  period  of  invalidism  she  had 
held  fast  to  her  faith  that  God  could  cure  her 
if  only  she  might  be  shown  the  way  to  reach 
Him.  Everything  that  medical  science  could 
do  had  been  tried,  and  she  had  herself  made 
an  exhaustive  study  of  homeopathy,  which 
Dr.  Patterson  used  in  connection  with  his 
profession  as  a  dentist.  It  was  seemingly  as 
a  last  resort  that  in  October,  1862,  nine  years 
after  her  marriage  to  the  doctor,  she  went  to 
Portland,  Maine,  for  treatment  by  Dr.  Quim- 
by,  who  was  believed  by  many  to  possess 
marvelous  powers  of  healing.  Her  hope  was 
that  perhaps,  as  he  used  no  medical  remedies, 
he  was  endowed  with  a  higher  power  that 
could  cure  her  of  the  spinal  disease  from  which 
she  had  so  long  suffered. 

It  was  but  a  frail  shadow  of  a  woman  who, 
buoyed  up  by  faith,  presented  herself  in  the 
doctor's  office.  That  she  was  cured  by  her 
own  faith  rather  than  by  any  occult  power 
possessed  by  Dr.  Quimby,  was  revealed  in  the 
light  of  later  years ;  but  at  that  time  her  grati- 

35 


MARY        BAKER         EDDY 

tude  to  and  reverence  for  the  man  through 
whom  she  believed  her  prayer  for  relief  from 
pain  had  been  granted,  was  boundless. 

Dr.  Quimby,  however,  made  no  claim  to 
being  a  religious  man.  Gratified  as  he  was  at 
the  speedy  cure  which  had  been  wrought,  he 
was  nevertheless  puzzled.  In  fact,  he  ex- 
plicitly declared  that  he  had  not  the  faith  in 
Christ  by  which  his  patient  explained  his 
power  to  heal,  attributing  it  rather  to  "  healthy 
electrical  currents,"  together  with  a  certain 
mystical  "wisdom"  which  he  imparted  but 
could  not  explain.  She,  however,  maintained 
that  this  "  wisdom  "  was  God  working  through 
him,  and  that  this  was  the  explanation  of  her 
healing. 

Her  Second  Personal  Demonstration  of 
Divine  Healing 

Two  years  later  found  her  domiciled  in 
Lynn,  Mass.,  a  city  famed  in  the  annals  of 
Christian  Science  as  the  scene  of  its  discovery 
and  earliest  attempts  at  propaganda.  With 
her  improved  health  she  was  able  to  partici- 
pate in  community  interests,  though  still 

36 


MARY        BAKER        EDDY 

continuing  her  literary  work,  as  many  con- 
tributions, both  of  prose  and  poetry,  to  the 
Lynn  papers,  bear  witness. 

Her  well-bred  bearing  and  cultivated  mind 
made  her  a  welcome  addition  to  any  circle, 
and  it  was  in  the  opportunity  that  came  to 
her  to  serve  as  presiding  officer  of  the  local 
Legion  of  Honor  that  she  first  displayed  the 
executive  power  which  in  the  coming  years 
was  to  stand  her  in  such  good  stead.  The 
power  which  had  made  Mark  Baker  the 
"Squire"  of  his  community  was  to  make  his 
daughter  the  Leader  in  a  cause  that  had  the 
world  for  its  arena. 

It  was  while  returning  from  one  of  these 
meetings,  on  February  i,  1866,  that  she 
slipped  on  the  icy  sidewalk,  and  was  severely 
injured.  The  physician  who  was  called  diag- 
nosed her  injuries  as  "internal  and  of  a  severe 
nature,  including  spasms  and  internal  suffer- 
ing." She  was  unconscious  all  night,  and  the 
following  day  was  removed  to  her  home  in  a 
very  critical  condition.  She  must  have  real- 
ized this,  for  on  recovering  consciousness  she 
refused  to  take  the  medicine  left  by  the 

37 


MARY    BAKER    EDDY 

physician,  and  turned  to  the  infinite  wisdom 
through  which,  as  she  was  beginning  to  see, 
her  healing  four  years  before  had  been  ac- 
complished. 

The  third  day,  Sunday,  she  seemed  in  such 
extremity  that  a  clergyman  was  summoned 
and  a  few  of  her  closest  friends  gathered  about 
her  bedside  for  what  they  believed  to  be  a 
final  farewell.  But  not  so  was  this  indomi- 
table spirit  to  be  quelled.  She  asked  to  be 
left  alone  for  a  little  time,  and  taking  up  her 
Bible  opened  it  at  the  account  of  the  man 
"sick  of  the  palsy." 

Pondering,  as  she  lay  there,  on  the  exceed- 
ing faith  which  had  brought  this  hopeless  one 
to  be  healed  of  the  "great  Physician,"  and  the 
reward  of  his  obedience  to  the  voice  which 
bade  him  arise,  this  sufferer,  apparently  at 
death's  gateway,  likewise  heard  the  response 
evoked  by  the  prayer  of  faith.  "/  will," 
the  answer  came  back.  "  Be  thou  whole. " 

She  at  once  arose,  dressed,  and  presented 
herself  to  the  friends  awaiting  a  last  summons 
to  her  bedside.  Now  it  was  clear  to  her  that 
God,  who  the  psalmist  declares  "healeth  all 

38 


MARY        BAKER        EDDY 

thy  diseases,"  is  unchanging  and  ever  present; 
that  the  power  which  healed  the  sick  at  the 
word  of  the  Master  and  his  disciples,  is  still 
available  to  those  who  ask  in  faith,  "nothing 
wavering." 

She  felt  herself  to  be  "called  of  God"  to 
discover  and  make  known  to  mankind  the 
law  which  Jesus  taught  his  followers  and 
declared  that  they  and  those  who  would 
accept  their  word  should  heal  the  sick  as  he 
had  done. 

Final  Preparation  for  Her  Great  Work 

Patiently  she  set  herself  to  the  task  of  dis- 
covering and  formulating  this  law.  For  three 
years  she  gave  herself  up  to  unremitting  study, 
the  Bible  her  only  text-book.  Gradually  the 
light  came,  and  she  began  to  test  the  truth  of 
her  theories. 

How  unspeakable  must  have  been  her  joy 
and  gratitude  when  the  first  proofs  were 
vouchsafed  her  that  the  truth  does  indeed 
make  free.  She  speaks  of  this  very  simply  in 
Science  and  Health: 

39 


MARY        BAKER         EDDY 

"  /  knew  the  Principle  of  all  harmonious  Mind- 
action  to  be  God,  and  that  cures  were  produced  in 
primitive  Christian  healing  by  holy,  uplifted  faith ; 
but  I  must  £non?  the  Science  of  this  healing,  and  I 
won  my  way  to  absolute  conclusions  through  dMne 
revelation,  reason  and  demonstration. " 

By  degrees  her  life-purpose  became  clear 
to  her.  All  the  experiences  of  the  past  were 
seen  in  a  new  light.  Dr.  Patterson  had 
departed  from  Lynn  in  the  early  summer  of 
1866  for  reasons  which  justified  his  wife  in 
securing  a  divorce  and  resuming  the  name  of 
her  early  married  life.  Doubtless  she  had 
often  wondered  why  so  many  and  such 
grievous  trials  had  been  her  portion,  but  she 
saw  it  all  now  as  a  gracious  preparation  for 
the  work  that  lay  before  her,  —  to  proclaim 
to  a  people  burdened  with  sin  and  sorrow  that 
the  Christ-healing  was  again  among  men. 

Mary  Baker  Glover  was  now  in  the  very 
prime  of  womanhood.  What  is  perhaps  the 
most  striking  likeness  of  her  at  this  period 
has  been  preserved  in  the  beautifully  executed 
medallion  by  W.  Clark  Noble,  from  which  the 

40 


PHOTOGRAPH   OF  MRS.  EDDY 

TAKEN  SOON  AFTER  THE   FIRST 

EDITION  OF   "SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH" 


MARY    BAKER    EDDY 

portrait  on  the  front  cover  of  this  book  was 
made.  The  clear-cut  features  are  almost 
classic,  although  the  style  of  the  hair  and  dress 
is  typical  of  the  time. 

First  Edition  of  Science  and  Health 

To  her  self-imposed  undertaking  she 
brought  to  bear  all  the  powers  of  a  trained  and 
well-stored  intellect.  As  early  as  1862  she 
had  begun  to  write  out  her  notes  on  Bible 
study,  and  these,  with  the  fruits  of  her  three 
years'  special  devotion  to  this  purpose,  were 
the  foundation  stones  of  her  great  work. 

It  was  not,  however,  until  1870  that  her 
first  pamphlet  on  Christian  Science  was  ready 
to  copyright,  but  for  five  years  Mrs.  Glover 
taught  the  Science  of  Mind-healing  from  the 
manuscript,  though  a  few  copies  were  in  cir- 
culation among  the  students  who  had  gathered 
about  her. 

The  first  edition  of  her  most  important 
work,  Science  and  Health,  the  text- book  of 
Christian  Science,  was  not  offered  to  the  public 
until  1875.  Her  family  had  never  under- 
stood her  devotion  to  religious  subjects,  and 


MARY        BAKER         EDDY 

this  pronounced  departure  from  the  faith  of 
her  fathers  completed  the  estrangement.  She 
stood  alone  with  God. 

The  story  of  the  decade  from  1870  to  1880 
cannot  be  told  in  detail  here.  The  great  dis- 
covery which  Mrs.  Glover  believed  had  but 
to  be  made  known  to  be  acclaimed  with  joy, 
had  been  met  for  the  most  part  with  scorn  and 
derision.  For  years  she  preached  and  taught 
wherever  she  could  get  a  hearing,  and  in 
demonstration  of  her  teaching  she  healed  the 
sick  again  and  again  "without  money  and 
without  price."  Here  and  there  she  found  a 
man  or  a  woman  amenable  to  her  instructions, 
and  she  equipped  them  and  sent  them  forth 
to  heal  the  sick,  even  as  the  Master  sent  forth 
the  seventy. 

The  First  Public  Practitioner  of  Christian 
Science 

In  her  marriage  to  Asa  Gilbert  Eddy  in 
1877  she  gained  an  able  coadjutor,  and  she 
needed  the  assistance  which  this  union  of 
forces  afforded,  for  the  performance  of  the 
multiplicity  of  duties  then  pressing  upon  her. 

42 


MARY        BAKER        EDDY 

The  calls  to  preach  and  to  teach  were  multi- 
plying, the  second  edition  of  the  text-book 
had  been  published,  and  every  spare  moment 
was  given  to  the  revision  for  the  third  edition, 
which  her  increased  understanding  of  the 
Science  was  enabling  her  to  elucidate. 

Dr. );  Eddy  was  the  first  of  her  students  to 
use  the  words,  "Christian  Scientist"  on  his 
office  sign,  and  he  lent  his  assistance  to  her 
every  plan. 

The  First  Organization  of  a  Church 

The  first  step  toward  a  church  organization 
was  in  June,  1875,  when  nine  students  had 
pledged  a  certain  sum  weekly  for  the  holding 
of  services  in  Lynn.  A  year  later  the  first 
Christian  Scientist  association  was  organized, 
and  it  was  this  association,  then  increased  to 
26  members,  which  on  April  19,  1879,  voted 
to  establish  the  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist, 
a  church  which  should  reestablish  the  heal- 
ing power  of  primitive  Christianity,  —  which 
should  preach  the  gospel  of  salvation  from 
sickness  as  well  as  sin. 

In  the  summer  of  1878  Mrs.  Eddy  had  the 
43 


MARY        BAKER         EDDY 

courage  to  "beard  the  lion  in  his  den;"  in 
other  words  to  open  Christian  Science  services 
in  Boston,  the  very  center  of  modern  intel- 
lectualism,  and  it  was  in  this  city  that  the 
church  was  organized.  Conservative  Boston 
gasped,  but  the  attendance  grew  larger  and 
larger. 

Such  was  the  beginning  of  The  Mother 
Church,  The  First  Church  of  Christ,  Scien- 
tist, in  Boston,  the  church  which  today 
through  its  healing  work,  its  consistent  Chris- 
tian living,  has  branch  churches  and  societies 
established  not  only  in  the  United  States  but 
in  every  civilized  country  on  the  globe.  The 
fact  that  today  Chicago  £has  sixteen  churches, 
Greater  New  York  six,  Los  Angeles  eleven, 
San  Francisco  eight,  and  London,  England, 
eight,  indicates  in  a  measure  the  rapidity  with 
which  the  movement  has  spread. 

Christian  Scientists  are  an  unnumbered  host. 
Remembering  Mrs.  Eddy's  statement,  set  forth 
in  a  message  to  her  church  in  June,  1900, 
that  "over  a  million  people  are  already  inter- 
ested in  Christian  Science,"  one  may  well  hesi- 
tate to  attempt  even  a  conservative  estimate 

44 


MARY        BAKER        EDDY 

of  the  present  number,  for  the  movement  has 
not  been  standing  still  during  the  intervening 
years;  on  the  contrary,  it  has  been  spread- 
ing by  leaps  and  bounds.  Such  data  as  are 
available  amply  sustain  this  conclusion. 

At  the  time  the  above  statement  was  made 
members  were  being  added  to  The  Mother 
Church  at  the  rate  of  about  four  thousand  a 
year.  Since  the  number  thus  added  has  in- 
creased steadily  —  "  exceeding  that  of  any  pre- 
vious year"  as  usually  stated  in  the  annual 
official  announcement  —  it  will  readily  be 
seen  that  this  denomination,  with  to  date  less 
than  forty  years  to  its  credit,  has  attained 
remarkable  proportions. 

Besides  The  Mother  Church,  with  a  mem- 
bership extending  throughout  the  world,  there 
are  at  the  present  time  nearly  seventeen  hun- 
dred branch  churches  and  societies  holding 
regular  services,  and  the  establishment  of  a 
new  church  every  four  days  is  the  record  for 
the  past  few  years.  In  addition  are  the 
thousands  upon  thousands  of  people  who 
while  not  actually  identified  with  the  church 
are  nevertheless  adherents  to  its  teachings. 

45 


MARY    BAKER    EDDY 

The    Massachusetts   Metaphysical   College 

In  the  spring  of  1882  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Eddy 
leased  the  house  at  569  Columbus  Avenue, 
Boston,  and  here  the  work  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Metaphysical  College  which  Mrs.  Eddy 
had  organized  in  January,  1881,  for  the  in- 
struction of  teachers  and  practitioners,  had 
its  home.  It  is  impossible  to  estimate  the 
number  of  students  taught  in  classes  by  Mrs. 
Eddy  prior  to  the  inauguration  of  the  college, 
for  the  Macedonian  cry  was  sounding  from 
every  quarter  and  she  was  training  and  send- 
ing out  as  fast  as  possible  the  students  who 
thronged  her  doors. 

During  the  first  eight  years  of  its  existence 
the  students  aggregated  four  thousand.  Then 
for  a  time  Mrs.  Eddy  deemed  it  best  to  close 
the  college,  but  it  was  reopened  in  January, 
1899.  At  present  the  work  of  the  college  is 
the  training  of  teachers  of  Christian  Science, 
a  class  of  thirty  being  taught  once  in  three 
years,  these  teachers  in  turn  having  the  privi- 
lege of  yearly  teaching  a  primary  class  of  not 
more  than  thirty  students. 

46 


PHOTOGRAPH   OF  MRS.  EDDY  TAKEN  ABOUT  1888 


MARY        BAKER        EDDY 

The  college  confers  the  degree  of  C.S.B., 
and  its  sessions  have  been  held  in  The  Mother 
Church  since  the  completion  of  the  first  edi- 
fice in  the  winter  of  1894-95.  It  was  no  easy 
task  to  place  the  college  on  a  sound  and  sys- 
tematic basis,  but  Mrs.  Eddy  accomplished 
this  as  she  did  everything  else,  by  personal 
attention  and  tireless  energy.  * 

Mr.  Eddy  passed  away  only  a  few  months 
after  the  opening  of  the  Columbus  Avenue 
home.  This  was  a  heavy  blow,  for  his  whole- 
hearted devotion  to  the  interests  of  the  cause 
she  had  established  had  relieved  Mrs.  Eddy 
of  many  cares.  But  she  was  not  one  to  in- 
dulge personal  grief,  and  her  church  was  more 
to  her  than  any  earthly  interest. 

"  The  Christian  Science  Journal " 

The  next  step  in  her  propaganda  was  the 
founding  of  "The  Christian  Science  Journal," 
an  eight  page  paper  which  made  its  first  ap- 
pearance as  the  organ  of  the  church  April  14, 
1883,  and  was  published  every  other  month. 
The  "Journal  "  is  now  an  attractive  monthly 
magazine  with  64  pages  of  reading  matter, 

47 


MARY        BAKER        EDDY 

its  only  advertisements  being  the  published 
works  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  the  cards  of  churches 
and  societies  holding  regular  services  and  of 
Christian  Science  practitioners  and  nurses. 

By  this  time  the  propaganda  had  extended 
to  the  far  West,  and  there  were  urgent  appeals 
for  the  teaching  of  a  class  in  Chicago.  At 
first  it  seemed  impossible  for  Mrs.  Eddy  to 
leave  her  work  in  Boston,  but  she  made  her 
first  visit  to  the  metropolis  of  the  West  in 
April,  1884.  The  enthusiasm  she  aroused 
during  this  visit  spread  like  wildfire  through- 
out the  West,  and  laid  the  foundation  for  the 
marvelous  growth  of  the  cause  in  that  section 
of  the  country. 

In  Boston,  cold  and  conservative  as  always 
to  newly  blazed  trails,  the  cause  was  never- 
theless growing  steadily,  and  many  of  the 
literary  lights  of  the  day  visited  the  modest 
home  on  Columbus  Avenue  to  converse  with 
the  woman  who  was  accomplishing  such  mar- 
velous things,  or  to  listen  to  her  lectures. 

Science  and  Health  had  reached  its  sixteenth 
edition,  and  on  her  return  from  the  West 
Mrs.  Eddy  devoted  every  spare  moment  to  a 

48 


MARY        BAKER         EDDY 

thorough  revision  and  rearrangement  of  the 
book.  This  edition  was  published  in  1885, 
and  was  by  far  the  most  satisfactory  up  to 
that  time. 

There  have  been  many  criticisms  because  of 
the  seemingly  frequent  revisions  of  the  text- 
book, but  these  are  easily  explained  when  one 
takes  into  consideration  the  constant  and 
tremendous  pressure  under  which  Mrs.  Eddy 
worked,  and  her  earnest  desire  so  to  elucidate 
the  truth,  as  it  became  clearer  to  herself 
through  continued  unfoldment,  that  even  the 
wayfaring  man  could  not  err  therein. 

It  was  in  February,  1886,  that  the  National 
Christian  Scientist  Association  first  convened 
in  New  York  city,  that  the  workers  in  the 
various  fields  might  have  the  benefit  of  mutual 
counsel  and  deliberation  on  the  vital  questions 
of  organization  and  development  which  were 
pressing  for  a  solution. 

Four  subsequent  sessions  were  held  in  Bos- 
ton, Chicago,  Cleveland  and  New  York,  and 
then  the  work  of  the  association  was  finished, 
its  purpose  fulfilled.  It  was  then  disbanded, 
but,  fortunately  for  posterity,  Mrs.  Eddy's  ad- 

49 


MARY        BAKER         EDDY 

dresses  and  letters  to  this  national  body  have 
been  preserved  in  her  volume  "Miscellaneous 
Writings." 

Removal  to  Concord,  N.  H. 

In  the  winter  of  1887  Mrs.  Eddy  purchased 
the  house  at  385  Commonwealth  Avenue, 
Boston,  where  she  resided  until  her  removal 
to  Concord,  N.  H.,  in  1889.  She  made  a 
second  visit  to  Chicago  in  1888,  at  the  time 
of  the  association  meeting  in  that  city,  and 
the  extemporaneous  address  which  she  de- 
livered before  an  audience  of  four  thousand 
at  Central  Music  Hall,  is  one  of  the  classics  of 
Christian  Science  literature.  Eleven  cases  of 
healing  during  the  delivery  of  this  address 
were  verified. 

So  rapidly  indeed  was  the  movement  de- 
veloping that  more  and  more  time  was  needed 
for  deliberation.  Students,  loyal  and  de- 
voted, there  were,  who  could  be  trusted  to 
execute  the  Leader's  plans  after  they  were 
formulated,  but  hers  was  the  task  of  the  or- 
ganizer and  director.  In  the  semi-seclusion 
of  "Pleasant  View,"  her  country  home  in 

50 


MARY        BAKER        EDDY 

Concord,  she  could  work  practically  free  from 
interruption. 

Mrs.  Eddy  was  never  a  negligible  quantity 
in  any  community,  and  soon  became  a  well- 
known  figure  as  her  carriage  passed  through 
the  principal  streets  of  the  city  on  her  daily 
drive.  She  was  a  woman  of  striking  personal- 
ity, and  at  that  time  had  changed  but  little 
from  what  is  considered  one  of  the  best  of  the 
many  portraits  of  that  period  extant,  this  one 
having  been  taken  about  the  time  of  her  sec- 
ond visit  to  Chicago. 

Her  eyes  were  her  most  striking  feature, 
and  gave  one,  even  from  a  casual  glance,  the 
impression  that  here  was  a  woman  with  a  pur- 
pose. Beautiful  eyes  they  were,  with  a  serene 
steadfastness  in  their  depths  which  made  you 
feel  that  nothing  could  swerve  her  once  her 
decision  had  been  made. 

Out  in  the  great  West  Christian  Science 
meant  something,  but  Concord  had  not  then 
begun  to  take  Mrs.  Eddy  or  her  teaching 
seriously.  The  day  came,  however,  when  the 
citizens  of  Concord  learned  to  know  and 
appreciate  Mrs.  Eddy  at  her  true  worth, 


MARY        BAKER         EDDY 

when  her  benefactions  to  the  city  had  reared 
for  her  an  enduring  monument  in  their  affec- 
tions. The  beautiful  edifice  at  the  corner  of 
State  and  School  streets  which  she  built  for 
the  Concord  church  is  but  one  of  her  many 
generous  gifts  to  the  city  and  state  she  loved 
so  well. 

The  First  Mother  Church  Edifice 

In  the  mean  time  plans  were  making  for  the 
erection  of  the  first  Mother  Church  edifice  in 
Boston.  Its  completion  and  dedication,  Janu- 
ary 6,  1895,  marked  an  era  in  the  progress  of 
Christian  Science,  and  was  a  country-wide 
event;  but  today  there  are  few  of  the  large 
cities  which  do  not  boast  one  or  more  of  the 
beautiful  and  stately  homes  of  the  Christian 
Science  faith. 

The  "Christian  Science  Sentinel"  and  "Der 
Herold  der  Christian  Science  " 

Mrs.  Eddy  established  the  "Christian 
Science  Sentinel,"  a  weekly  paper,  in  Septem- 
ber, 1898,  and  "Der  Herold  der  Christian 
Science,"  a  German  monthly  magazine,  in 

52 


MARY        BAKER        EDDY 

1903.*  While  she  gave  up  the  active  editorship 
of  the  "Journal"  with  her  retirement  to  Concord, 
she  was  a  frequent  contributor  to  its  columns. 

These  articles  have  been  compiled,  the  first 
volume  under  the  title  "  Miscellaneous  Writ- 
ings," having  been  published  in  1896.  Her 
later  contributions  to  the  periodicals,  issued 
by  the  publisher  of  her  works  in  the  winter  of 
1913-1914,  with  the  title,  "The  First  Church 
of  Christ,  Scientist,  and  Miscellany,"  bear 
eloquent  testimony  to  her  tireless  labors  and 
unceasing  care  for  the  welfare  of  her  church. 

Other  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  published  works  are 
"Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  "Unity 
of  Good,"  "Pulpit  and  Press,"  "Rudimental 
Divine  Science,"  "No  and  Yes,"  "Christian 
Science  versus  Pantheism,"  "Messages  to 
The  Mother  Church,  1900-1902,"  "Christian 
Healing,  and  The  People's  Idea  of  God," 
"Christ  and  Christmas,"  and  the  Manual  of 
The  Mother  Church.  She  also  supervised  the 
compilation  of  the  volume  "Poems  of  Mary 

*  As  this  volume  goes  to  press  the  Christian  Science  Publishing 
Society  has  put  out  the  first  number  of  a  new  publication  in 
French  —  "  Le  H6raut  de  Christian  Science." 

53 


MARY        BAKER        EDDY 

Baker  Eddy,"  which  was  published  only  a 
few  weeks  before  she  passed  away.  In- 
cluded in  this  volume  are  "Mother's  Evening 
Prayer,"  "Christ  My  Refuge,"  "Feed  My 
Sheep,"  "Blest  Christmas  Morn,"  and  "Com- 
munion Hymn,"  poems  which  have  been  set 
to  music  and  are  embodied  in  the  Christian 
Science  Hymnal.  So  dear  to  her  followers 
are  these  inspired  and  inspiring  utterances  of 
the  Leader  of  Christian  Scientists,  that  it  is 
the  exception  for  a  service  to  be  held  in  The 
Mother  Church  which  does  not  include  one 
of  these  hymns,  sung  either  as  a  solo  or  by  the 
congregation. 

She  likewise  devised  the  plan  for  the  im- 
personal Lesson-Sermons  which  are  used  in 
all  Christian  Science  churches,  and  selected 
the  twenty-six  subjects  which  these  sermons 
elucidate  with  the  Bible  and  Science  and 
Health  as  the  only  text-books. 

The  Extension  to  The  Mother  Church 
in  Boston 

Two  more  stupendous  events  in  the  career 
of  this  wonderful  woman  remain  to  be  chron- 

54 


MARY    BAKER    EDDY 

icled.  The  first  was  the  erection  of  the  two- 
million-dollar  temple  in  Boston  adjoining  the 
original  church,  the  gift  of  its  members 
throughout  the  world.  Fully  thirty  thousand 
Christian  Scientists  visited  Boston  at  the  time 
of  its  dedication  in  June,  1906. 

The  dome  of  this  stately  edifice  swells  out 
against  the  sky-line  high  above  the  adjacent 
buildings,  and  by  the  generous  gift  of  one  of 
its  members  the  church  now  has  a  fitting 
approach  from  Huntington  Avenue,  through 
the  beautiful  sunken  garden  which  from  day 
to  day  is  a  joy  to  the  city  dwellers  weary  of 
brick  walls  and  dusty  streets. 

The  Christian  Science  Publishing  Society 

Within  two  years  further  gifts  from  the 
field  had  made  possible  a  home  close  to  the 
church  for  the  Christian  Science  Publishing 
Society,  to  which  Mrs.  Eddy  had  entrusted 
the  publication  of  the  periodicals  she  had 
founded  for  the  benefit  of  the  church. 

Scarcely  had  the  Society  moved  into  its 
new  home,  in  the  late  summer  of  1908,  when 
Mrs.  Eddy  set  about  the  fulfillment  of  a  long- 

55 


MARY         BAKER         EDDY 

cherished   plan,    the   publication   of   a   clean 
daily  newspaper. 

"  The  Christian  Science  Monitor " 

A  quarter  of  a  century  before,  with  the 
founding  of  the  "Journal,"  she  had  made  her 
protest  against  sensational  newspapers,  and 
sent  forth  her  own  white-winged  messengers 
to  counteract,  in  a  degree,  this  harmful  in- 
fluence, and  to  carry  the  glad  tidings  that 
clean  thoughts  make  for  clean  and  whole- 
some bodies.  Now  the  time  had  come  for  a 
more  persistent  messenger,  and  "The  Chris- 
tian Science  Monitor,"  an  international  daily 
newspaper,  was  launched. 

All  the  world  knows  the  story  of  its  begin- 
ning, for  it  was  a  revelation  to  the  newspaper 
field.  But  the  men  who  were  doing  such 
tremendous  tasks  were  simply  carrying  out 
the  plans  Mrs.  Eddy  had  evolved  in  the  quiet, 
of  that  retirement  which  was  all  she  asked  of 
the  world  and  which  it  was  so  reluctant  to 
grant. 

The  first  issue  of  the  "Monitor  "  was  given 
to  the  public  the  day  before  Thanksgiving, 

56 


MARY        BAKER         EDDY 

1908.  Since  then  the  plant  has  been  three 
times  enlarged,  and  now  occupies  more  than 
six  times  its  original  space.  How  could  a 
newspaper  fail  to  prosper  which  has  for  its 
avowed  object  the  purpose  "to  injure  no  man, 
but  to  bless  all  mankind." 

Her  Return  to  Boston 

With  such  an  abundance  of  material  from 
which  to  outline  the  career  of  so  distinguished 
a  woman,  it  is  possible  to  touch  on  only  the 
salient  points.  There  remains  to  chronicle, 
however,  Mrs.  Eddy's  return  to  Boston  in 
January,  1908. 

For  years  she  had  not  only  kept  in  close 
touch  through  trusted  messengers  with  the 
affairs  of  her  church  and  the  various  publica- 
tions, but  her  own  steady  literary  output, 
together  with  the  tremendous  correspondence 
which  had  developed  with  the  growth  of  the 
cause,  necessitated  a  staff  of  helpers  which 
exceeded  even  the  ample  accommodations  of 
Pleasant  View,  Concord,  N.  H.,  and  reluc- 
tantly Mrs.  Eddy  yielded  to  what  appeared 
to  be  an  unavoidable  change. 

57 


MARY        BAKER        EDDY 

The  beautiful  and  spacious  mansion  at 
Chestnut  Hill  in  the  suburbs  of  Boston, 
which  had  so  lovingly  been  prepared  for  her 
occupancy,  was  presided  over  by  its  gentle 
and  gracious  mistress  for  very  nearly  three 
years.  It  has  its  place  in  history  as  the 
setting  for  the  final  scene  —  the  peaceful 
passing  on  of  Mrs.  Eddy  in  the  late  evening 
of  December  3,  1910. 

About  two  years  ago  the  privilege  of  visiting 
this  home  was  extended  to  members  of  the 
church,  admission  being  by  card,  and  the 
register  which  is  kept  bears  many  distinguished 
names.  While  it  seems  even  now  an  intrusion 
on  the  seclusion  which  Mrs.  Eddy  found  neces- 
sary for  accomplishment  of  her  great  achieve- 
ment, it  is  perhaps  pardonable  in  the  light  it 
throws  on  the  sweetness  and  simplicity  of 
character  of  this  truly  wonderful  woman. 

One  gazes  with  a  modicum  of  interest  at  the 
rich  furnishings  of  the  state  suite  on  the  lower 
floor,  and  the  multitude  of  rare  and  costly 
gifts  lavished  on  the  beloved  Leader  of  Chris- 
tian Science  by  her  followers  which  are  there 
displayed. 

58 


MARY        BAKER         EDDY 

As  one  ascends  the  stately  staircase,  how- 
ever, the  scene  changes,  for  there  is  no  display 
in  the  suite  of  rooms  on  this  floor  which  Mrs. 
Eddy  occupied  —  only  the  simple  intimate 
things  she  loved  and  among  which  she  had  for 
many  years  lived  and  worked.  The  "west 
room,"  from  which  she  watched  the  glowing 
hues  of  sunset  fade  into  early  twilight,  the 
"sitting  room"  of  New  England  days, — 
both  of  these  are  attractively  yet  quaintly 
furnished,  but  there  is  no  straining  after 
effect.  Interest  centers  chiefly  in  the  "study," 
the  one  room  which  with  the  adjoining  cham- 
ber is  indelibly  stamped  with  her  individu- 
ality. The  big  chair  by  the  great  window  with 
its  wide  outlook  to  the  east,  the  table  at 
which  she  worked,  the  plain  cases  of  reference 
books  near  at  hand,  —  all  these  are  eloquent 
of  the  student,  the  worker  who  subordinated 
all  else  to  the  task  she  alone  could  do,  —  and 
all  are  just  as  they  were  left  when  the  busy 
hands  relinquished  that  task. 

Against  the  soft  gray  of  the  carpet  and 
walls  and  the  rose-colored  hangings  of  the 
chamber,  the  marble  top,  black  walnut  "set" 

59 


MARY        BAKER         EDDY 

of  forty  years  ago  stands  out  in  strong  relief. 
It  could  be  duplicated  yet  in  hundreds  of  old 
New  England  homes,  for  it  was  the  acme  of 
elegance  in  that  period.  There  is  even  the 
commode  of  bygone  days,  with  its  quaint  ewer 
and  bowl.  And  here,  hanging  against  the 
wall  beside  the  old-fashioned  dresser,  was  her 
cherished  memento  of  the  days  when  as  a 
happy  bride  she  had  gone  to  her  new  home  in 
the  sunny  South  —  a  palm-leaf-shaped  fan  of 
turkey  feathers,  presented  to  her  by  the  slaves 
of  her  husband's  household,  the  slaves  whom 
she  freed  when  his  estate  was  settled. 

A  Sacred  Trust 

Mrs.  Eddy  maintained  her  tireless  labor  of 
love  for  the  welfare  of  her  church  up  to  the 
very  close  of  her  earthly  existence,  and  so  well 
had  she  wrought  that  the  vast  organization 
she  had  set  in  motion  has  moved  on,  without 
jar  or  cessation,  under  the  direction  of  those 
she  had  for  years  trained  to  its  duties.  Under 
the  provisions  of  her  will  the  bulk  of  her  estate 
of  two  million  six  hundred  thousand  dollars 
was  left  in  trust  to  her  church  for  the  advance- 

60 


PHOTOGRAPH   OF  MRS.  EDDY  TAKEN  ABOUT   1898 


MARY    BAKER    EDDY 

ment  of  the  cause  which  was  the  culmination 
of  her  endeavors  for  humanity. 

The    Opinion    of    Another    of    the    World's 
Greatest  Women 

Clara  Barton,  herself  so  great,  has  well 
said  of  Mrs.  Eddy: 

"Love  permeates  all  the  teachings  of  this 
great  woman,  —  so  great,  I  believe,  that  at 
this  perspective  we  can  scarcely  realize  how 
great,  —  and  looking  into  her  life-history  we 
see  nothing  but  self-sacrifice  and  unselfishness. 
Mrs.  Eddy  should  have  the  respect,  admira- 
tion and  love  of  the  whole  nation,  for  she  is 
its  greatest  woman." 

In  Memoriam 

What  differentiated  Mary  Baker  Eddy 
from  all  other  women  of  this  and  other  times? 
Let  the  multitudes  of  those  who  have  been 
redeemed  physically,  morally  and  financially, 
through  Christian  Science,  make  answer. 

Verily  her  works  do  "praise  her  in  the 
gates,"  for  as  of  old  the  blind  see,  the  deaf 
hear,  the  lame  walk,  those  dead  in  trespasses 

61 


MARY        BAKER         EDDY 

and  sin  are  raised  into  newness  of  life,  the 
sorrowing  are  comforted,  and  the  poor  have 
the  gospel  of  salvation  preached  and  dem- 
onstrated to  them.  An  unending  paean  of 
gratitude  and  praise  is  her  portion  as  the 
Discoverer  and  Founder  of  Christian  Science. 


62 


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